DISJUNCTIVE JUDGMENTS AND PROPOSITIONS 283 



jn question will be found exclusively in the class F, or ex 

 clusively in the class Z, or partially in one and partially in the 

 other. This ambiguity prevents us from resolving the universal 

 judgment &quot; Every X is either Y or Z &quot; into the two alternative 

 judgments &quot; Either every X is Y or every X is Z &quot;. But the corre 

 sponding ambiguity in the case of &quot; Some&quot; does not prevent us 

 from resolving &quot; Some X s are either Y or Z&quot; into &quot; Either Some 

 X s are Y or Some X s are Z &quot;. When the subject is a collective, 

 or a singular, term, no such ambiguity can arise. 



Dr. Keynes points out that when the predicate of an affirmative proposi 

 tion is conjunctive, a similar obstacle to regarding the proposition as com 

 pound (88) arises in the case of particulars, but not in the case of singulars 

 or of universal*. &quot; Thus, This S is P and Q = This S is P and this S is Q ; 

 All S is P and Q = All S is P and All S is Q. From the proposition Some 

 S is P and Q we may indeed infer Some S is P and Some S is Q ; but we 

 cannot pass back from this conclusion to the premiss, and hence the two are 

 not equivalent to one another &quot;.* 



144. THE ALTERNATIVE BETWEEN Two JUDGMENTS OF 

 INDEPENDENT IMPORT. It is possible, as in the case of &quot;If&quot; 

 propositions, to draw a distinction between two classes of 

 &quot;Either . . .or&quot; propositions. The choice may be between 

 two or more predicates which signify properties or events occur 

 ring in time and space ; or between two or more judgments of 

 independent import, whose truth or falsity is independent of 

 time and space. An example of the former would be : Every 

 blood vessel is either a vein or an artery. An example of the 

 latter : Either there is a future life or wickedness remains 

 unpunished. 



Propositions of the former of these two classes are called by Dr. Keynes 

 complex propositions, or propositions with complex terms, as opposed to com 

 pound propositions (84). A complex term he defines as a combination of 

 two or more simple terms ; and such combination can be either alternative 

 or conjunctive? Care must be taken to distinguish the &quot; complex term &quot; in 

 this technical sense from the many-worded term (or terminus complexus of 

 scholastic logic) which also results from the combination of two or more 

 simpler terms, as, for example, &quot;Highest mountain in Asia&quot; (22). The 

 difference consists in this, that in the latter the simpler elements or &quot; notes &quot; 

 are constituents of one mental object, and are held as one whole in the mind, 

 whereas in the former case the combining elements are held apart, as distinct 

 objects, in the mind. S is both P and Q; Sis P Q; S is either P orQ: would 

 be examples of propositions with complex predicates. Whatever is S and 



1 op. cit. t p. 276. 3 KEYNES, op. cit., pp. 276, 468 sqq. ; supra, 94. 



